Description

This is a well-researched, and frequently entertaining, account of the rise and fall of the House Committee on Un-American activities. Fried describes the growth of the kind of paranoid and xenophobic anti-communism which characterized the HUAC and traces its origins from the New Deal to the post-war periods. Along the way we meet important actors in the Red-baiting drama, including Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, the young Richard Nixon, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten, and, of course, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Fried, however, also documents the more sweeping and less public effects of McCarthyism on thousands of people, from teachers and lawyers to washroom attendants forced to take loyalty tests. As Fried shows, these 'insignificant' stories are perhaps the strongest testament to the social and political climate which terrorized many ordinary citizens during the McCarthy years.show more

Back cover copy

Providing the most complete history of the rise and fall of the phe-nomenon known as McCarthyism, Nightmare in Red offers a riveting and comprehensive account of the many different people who became embroiled in the anti-communist fervor of mid-century America. It traces the second Red Scare's antecedents from the 1930s, to the early years of the Cold War, through the peak of the McCarthy era, and beyond McCarthy's censure to the decline of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1960s.show more

Review quote

`well-researched book ... Anyone interested in this short span of American political history will find this erudite book both interesting and absorbing.'
The News Line `A richly detailed history of America's ongoing frenzy of fear over communism.'Book World `Mr Fried writes ably, scrupulously presenting both sides of every issue; no-one will ever do a better six page precis of the Alger Hiss case.'The New York Times Book Reviewshow more